NASCAR 08 Hands-on

There's a reason why NASCAR is one of America's most popular sports. Apparently, Americans love turning left. And saying, "Shake and bake!"

We sat down with the long-awaited NASCAR 08, making its next-generation debut on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this summer. While the franchise has been well-received by hard core fans of the sport, usually named Cletus, NASCAR has yet to grab the rest of the racing audience. Why? NASCAR is a lot more complicated than bootleggers outrunning cops on the back roads of the Carolinas. Shake and bake!

If rubbin's racin', then rubbin' is a science. Aside from the 40-plus mechanical modifications you can make to your stock car and trucks in NASCAR 08, there's drafting, bump-drafting, slingshot passing and apexing turns to worry about. We're not going to hold your hand through all this new fandangled terminology: EA's new The Chase mode will do that for you. The Chase is a new career mode that starts off with some very basic challenges, each of which teaches you a new element of NASCAR racing. When you move past these challenges, you'll not only earn a new license, but you'll know just what the heck you're doing on a racetrack. Shake and bake!

From there, you earn contract offers and cars based on your performance. If you excelled in challenges on super speedway tracks, then you may sign a contract with, say, Hendrick Motorsports and have a car specially tuned for super speedway tracks like Talladega (shake and bake).

If you're still completely lost, which you probably are if you don't use the term "y'all," EA has added a new heads-up-display called VTV, which is fancy marketing talk that basically means you can see your tire wear, damage, oil temp, banks on turns as well as the drafts being thrown up by cars ahead of you. With the VTV on, the airflow of a draft appears green, and your speed will increase if you stay within the pocket. Different cars throw up different size drafts -- traditional stock cars are more aerodynamic and throw up less draft than, say, the Car of Tomorrow, which punches a bigger hole and creates a bigger pocket, increasing passing opportunities.

The Car of Tomorrow is the awe-inspiring marketing term NASCAR created for its new safer (and slower) car. It has a higher roof and a bigger window so drivers will be able to better withstand rolls and get out of the car a bit easier. A push for a safer car was put in motion following Dale Earnhardt's death at Daytona a few years ago, and the Car of Tomorrow will be run in all NASCAR races next season as the traditional stockcar is phased out.

NASCAR is hoping the new ride will discourage pack driving and encouraging passing based on a driver's skill. The Car of Tomorrow will handle much differently in NASCAR 08 than stockcars, Busch cars and also trucks, EA told us.